2. Money matters a whole lot. Back in December, my colleague Bonnie Kristian pointed to the then-piddling performances of billionaires Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, and proclaimed that “money doesn’t matter much in politics.” It seemed like a good argument at the time. But a big factor in Bloomberg’s rise — perhaps the biggest — is the sheer amount of cash he is dropping. He has spent $250 million on TV and radio ads, and as much as $50 million on digital ad spending.

But money can’t be the only factor in Bloomberg’s rise, although Steyer’s moneybomb in South Carolina seems to be making a difference in that state. Bloomberg’s ads focus on bashing the one candidate that all Democrats are united against: Trump himself. For many party activists, that’s far more satisfying than watching Dems beat up other Dems in the quest for a few extra convention delegates. And Bloomberg has been a known quantity in national political circles for nearly two decades now, presiding over the nation’s biggest city during a relatively tranquil era, when crime and debt weren’t its defining qualities. He starts out with a presumption of competence and plausibility that money alone can’t buy.